Seo Experts

How to Hire Top Talent: 7 Sourcing Strategies You May Be Missing

Chicago, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/20/2013 -- Discovering the next singing superstar may seem easier than finding your next key employee. With all of the reality television talent shows that catapult unknown contestants into mega-stardom, you would think someone could develop a new and efficient way to recruit great hires. Meanwhile, you struggle to find reliable recruiting sources and wonder how to hire your next best-in-class professional.

Great Hires are Hard to Find

The most commonly cited source for quality hires is from employee referrals. Thoughtful, engaged employees eager to bring on more of the same can be a wonderful resource. But candidates can also be offered by below-average employees, especially if the organization pays for referrals.

Perhaps you've looked to passive candidates, those overachievers who are not actively seeking new employment but are open to attractive opportunities when they are presented.

Hiring from within the organization is another common practice. Promoting proven performers is faster, less expensive and can be a boost to employee morale.

Of course, while all of these approaches have value, in today's competitive talent search great hires must also be sought out in innovative ways that are perhaps less-often considered.

How to Hire by Improving Sourcing Strategies

The talent pool for extraordinary hires is rapidly shrinking; and competition for these sought-after employees is stronger than ever. In order to strengthen your recruitment and retention and seek a better quality of hire, here are seven sourcing strategies you might want to consider:

1. Review your current source of hire data to determine what's working and what isn't. Then you can focus on the channels that are the most productive.

2. Ask applicants where they first learned of the opportunity they are seeking.

3. Determine your most important and frequently recruited roles and begin building talent pools for subsequent use. This will allow a more proactive approach in the future.

4. Examine the resume files of your highest performers. Perhaps their backgrounds are different than the profiles your hiring manager is currently using.

5. Consider appropriate feeder roles (the job your prime candidate may have held a year or two prior) and look to your competitors who employ people in those positions.

6. Tap online social networks like LinkedIn to cast a broader net for potential hires.

7. Outsource critical tasks for additional expertise and to gain an objective view of current processes.

Great hires, like undiscovered singing talent, can be hiding in plain view. Knowing where to search and using best hiring practices can yield the most results. You don't need a star-studded panel of judges, just a coordinated processes and the tactical knowledge of how to hire winning talent.